This invention relates to data logging systems, and in particular, to systems for logging or registering items of data related to persons or articles. It is particularly, although not exclusively, adapted for use as a classroom roll-taking system, for recording the presence or absence of pupils or students, their test results and other such data.
Various alternative methods of automating the collection of attendance data in schools have previously been proposed, including systems in which pupils are issued with cards which must be inserted in card readers to record attendance, and systems in which specially prepared forms are completed in the classroom, and subsequently inserted into a "optical mark reader" at a central point, to transfer the information into the schools information system.
Both of these systems have specific weaknesses, and in particular, the card reader system is open to abuse by pupils who give their cards to others to make registrations for them, while the "optical mark reader" system suffers from the inherent deficiency of "paper bound" systems, since it requires the completed forms to be physically transferred from the classroom to the school office, wasting staff time and also, of course, giving rise to pupil supervision problems if the teachers themselves are required to deliver the collected data.